National museum set to send more of its treasures out on tour
● Attractions around the country set to benefit from major new strategy
0 Dr Gordon Rintoul, director of National Museums Scotland, with culture secretary Fiona Hyslop A host of Scotland’s most important historic artefacts and precious treasures are to be sent around the country as part of a new drive to ensure they are seen by far more people in future.
Major new touring exhibitions and loans of high-profile objects are expected to be lined up as part of a new strategy instigated by the Scottish Government.
It wants to significantly open up access to the national collections which are kept in Edinburgh and have largely only been on display in the capital previously.
National Museums Scotland, which runs four separate attractions, will allow more of the 12 million objects it has in its care to go far “beyond the walls” of its buildings, including artefacts and specimens from the worlds of art, fashion, design, science, technology, the natural world, archaeology and world cultures.
The initiative, which will include “a strategic programme of loans,” is expected to boost the fortunes of museums and galleries around the country by allowing them to enhance their own collections by arranging loans or hosting exhibitions.
NMS’S new national strategy will “prioritise projects which deliver the greatest benefits to people and places across the country” and also ensure greater digital access to its archives, which are stored at a vast collections centre on the Edinburgh waterfront.
Jilly Burns, national partnerships manager at NMS, said the most “obvious and visible” form of partnership in future would see objects from the national collection regularly appearing in other museums. She added: “This can be individual object loans, whether long-term, such as at the recently opened Lews Castle museum in Stornoway or for shorter, specific exhibitions.”
Dr Gordon Rintoul, director of NMS, said: “We will collaborate with organisations and communities across the country, sharing skills and expertise to ensure the impact of our collections and programmes is felt as widely as possible.”
Scottish culture secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “National Museums Scotland can only be truly national if it helps and leads museum activity right across Scotland and this new Strategy will help drive that forward.
“The new touring opportunities which will see the sharing of national treasures at museums across Scotland will help inspire visitors and is a stepchange in its role as a national institution.”